WEST Gambier completed a comfortable outright win over South Gambier last weekend to move into top spot on the A Grade ladder.
Having already secured first innings points on day one, West batted on to start the second day before eventually being bowled out for 147.
Jake Blackwell led the way with a fantastic 56 from 79 balls, which included five fours and one six, before he was run out by Michael Sims.
Other contributions came from Bray Stephenson (20 off 23 balls), Jack Geddes (15 off 55) and Sam Coxon (13 off 41).
Jakob Opie was the pick of South Gambier’s bowlers, finishing with 4-40 from his 11 overs while Robert Drenthen managed 3-53 from his 11 overs.
South had managed to limit the damage and trailed by just 54 runs heading into their second innings but after managing just 93 in their first knock, they would need quite the turnaround to salvage something from this contest.
Stephen Easterbrook opened the innings for South and immediately showed his intent by taking the attack to the bowlers.
Easterbrook was savage on anything short but when the bowlers attempted to pitch it up he was able to drive powerfully down the ground.
With Easterbrook going at a rapid pace there might have been some optimism in the South Gambier sheds that they could build a lead and give Wests a challenging target to chase late in the day.
Unfortunately for South, Easterbrook had no support and when he was dismissed for 42 from just 38 balls the rest of the lineup collapsed to be all out for 67.
The next best score came from Nick Seager (10 off 13) and four batsmen came and went without troubling the scorers.
Wickets were shared around for Wests with Sam Willis, Stephenson and Kyal Chapman all picking up three apiece.
Needing just 14 runs to claim an outright win West wasted no time and, despite losing Jack Geddes for a golden duck, finished things off inside two overs with Blackwell (12 off 6) doing most of the work and capping off a brilliant all-round game from himself.
RESULTS: West Gambier 147 (J Blackwell 56, B Stephenson 20, J Opie 4-40, R Drenthen 3-53) and 1 for 14 defeated South Gambier 93 (D Loupos 45, S Easterbrook 20, J Blackwell 4-21, R Crute 2-2) and 67 (S Easterbrook 42, K Chapman 3-7, B Stephenson 3-11, S Willis 3-22) by 9 wickets outright.
